With pottery, there are so many processes and lessons, that I am constantly learning new ways to work with clay. It is a journey of creativity and it fascinates me. Every piece I create is an experiment. So far, I have not made two items that are the same. Different shapes, colors, thicknesses, and uses make every creation unique to itself. To me, that is the fun…and frustration…of it all.

I never know what I am going to get. I can glaze two pieces using the exact same glazes and get wildly different results. I can try to make a mug on the wheel and end up with a bowl or vice versa. When hand building a piece, I never know if I am going to get the shape I want or if my joins will hold. As I get more experience, I am also gaining confidence, but pottery never lets your confidence get too high. Ha!

When I went to pottery camp, we were hand building mugs from slabs of clay. To form the mug, you have to take a clay slab and shape it into a cylinder. This creates a seam where the opposite ends of the slab meet. Connecting that seam well is extremely important to the integrity of the mug. If not done properly, the piece will be ruined.

My teacher Ros said something that I thought was profound. “Celebrate the seam.” Rather than trying to hide the seam or smooth it away, make it part of the design. When there is a botanical imprint in the clay, if you smooth out the seam, you are creating a void in your design where the flowers are wiped away. It makes the seam stand out more, rather than less, because there are all these beautiful images and then a blank line down the center of the piece.

I took her at her word. Wherever the pieces of clay overlapped, I drew attention to it rather than away. I added dotted or wavy lines. I left the indention of the seam visible. Sometimes I put the handle over the seam, other times I left it front and center. What I found was that the seam is part of the piece.

If you have been a reader of my work for any length of time, you know I see life lessons everywhere. This is one of those times. How many times have I tried to hide or cover my seams? To pretend that I am whole, smooth, seamless? To try live up to the expectations of all the seamless people around me? But, guess what? They aren’t seamless either! No one is.

My weak areas are part of what makes me unique. When I let them show with vulnerability and transparency, it is part of the design. To draw attention to this seam is counterintuitive, but it makes the finished piece more beautiful. The imprints of the beautiful parts of my life are all visible, but so are the seams…the jagged places that don’t quite fit together. I cannot have one without the other. So, in addition to the lovely parts, why not celebrate the seams as part of my life that have made me who I am? It is the combination, the juxtaposition, the dichotomy, the beauty and the scars which God uses to create a masterpiece. Not one or the other…both. I choose to celebrate the seams.